This piece is part of our Wit­ness­ing series, which shares pieces from Israeli authors and authors in Israel, as well as the expe­ri­ences of Jew­ish writ­ers around the globe in the after­math of Octo­ber 7th.

It is crit­i­cal to under­stand his­to­ry not just through the books that will be writ­ten lat­er, but also through the first-hand tes­ti­monies and real-time account­ing of events as they occur. At Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, we under­stand the val­ue of these writ­ten tes­ti­mo­ni­als and of shar­ing these indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences. It’s more impor­tant now than ever to give space to these voic­es and narratives.

A Denier Testifies

Months after the ter­ror attacks on Israel, the denial of sex­u­al assault by Hamas con­tin­ues across social media plat­forms and beyond. (ADL)

I’m here to tell you about a tour

I did not take

the van I did not ride in

the win­dow I did not look through

the car­cass­es of cars

I did not see

I did not take a picture

of shat­tered windows

or man­gled doors

I did not stand beside

a singed house

or go inside

did not see bul­let casings

a half-eat­en pear

ripped jeans

did not step on shards of glass

nor walk on a field

lit­tered with the clothes

of female ghosts

I did not see

I did not see

any of this

I swear

on a pair of blood-soaked

under­wear

strung across a limb

I did not

see the truth

through this tour

I did not take.

The views and opin­ions expressed above are those of the author, based on their obser­va­tions and experiences.

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